OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022 - 17

17 WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM | VOL 22 NO 5 | 2022
HOW TO
MASTER
YOUR
BODY
WEIGHT
IF YOU WANT REAL BODY CHANGE,
IT'S HORMONES YOU NEED TO
UNDERSTAND, NOT CALORIES.
The calorie in, calorie out theory
continues to hold sway in discussions
of body change. Yet, every time we eat
less or exercise more, compensatory
reactions are set in place that
increases hunger or slow metabolism
in response. This is a hormonal
phenomenon and it's time we started
to fight fire with fire. If you want real
body change, it's hormones you need
to understand, not calories.
Jonavan Mathers
with Duane Darwin
H
ormones determine which fuel
our metabolic engine burns:
sugar versus fat. They also
determine where on your body that fat
is stored or liberated. Because of this,
hormones manage more than simple
calorie input and output.
For you to achieve fat loss, not just
weight loss, an optimal state of
hormonal function must be achieved.
We call this the " metabolic effect, " and
achieving this state is more about how
you exercise as opposed to how much
you exercise.
Consider the calorie theory in the
real world. Elite marathoners and
sprinters have low levels of body fat.
However, sprinters are typically leaner
compared to marathon runners.
In the world of calories, this simply
does not make sense. Sprinters engage
in short bursts of all-out effort lasting
seconds and spend much of their
exercise time recovering, while
marathoners run continuously for
hours.
If the calorie model is correct,
shouldn't marathoners be the leaner of
the athletes? " Leaner " refers to body fat percentage. Though the elite
marathoner appears " skinnier " than the elite sprinter, this is because the
marathoner has much less muscle mass.
Hormones are the only way to explain this paradox. Human
metabolism is analogous to a car that can choose between two fuels. Fat
is analogous to diesel fuel; it gets good mileage, but poor performance.
Sugar is like high-octane jet fuel. It produces blazing performance but
won't last too long. Hormones are the real determinants of which fuel we
burn. You can be burning calories, but that does not mean you are
burning fat.
The body becomes efficient at burning what you routinely eat and restores
the energy you burn during exercise by using the other fuel.
In other words, eat sugar at a meal and you'll burn sugar after the
meal, but burn sugar during exercise and you'll burn fat after. This
realization turns common dogma about exercise on its head, making
high-intensity sugar-burning exercise preferred over low intensity, fatcentered
activity.
-
Exercising of sufficient intensity increases stress hormones (that is to say
adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol), known as " fight or flight "
hormones. Together they ensure the switch to high-octane sugar use,
which historically supplied the energy to fight for our lives or sprint to
escape danger.
Running faster and harder causes your body to burn through all this
sugar quickly, maxing out aerobic capacity and going anaerobic. This
increase in anaerobic metabolism produces lactic acid, which acts as a
hormonal signaling molecule. When lactic acid builds up, it's partially
responsible for the release of metabolic stimulants such as testosterone
and human growth hormone.
The total hormonal environment generated by this intense exercise
works synergistically to produce a leaner body.
The impact of this hormonal metabolic effect lasts after the workout
and sends the signals to rebuild, regenerate, and recycle energy. Since
sugar stores are now depleted, energy from fat is used to repair the body
and partly regenerate sugar reserves.
This means more fat-burning at rest. This metabolic change is less
about speeding up metabolism post-exercise, and more about shifting the
relative contributions of fuel from sugar to fat. The metabolism is now
more efficient despite running at the same speed.
Humans in natural conditions did low-intensity activity all day every
day. However, the last thing one should do when confronted with stress
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OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022

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